First-of-its-kind Kaladevi Doll Museum opens at Ramsons

Udupi Pejawar Mutt Seer Sri Vishwaprasanna Teertha Swamiji, who inaugurated Kaladevi Doll Museum at Ramsons in city last evening, is seen taking a look at the dolls on display as Ramsons Kala Pratishtana Secretary R.G. Singh and R. Vasudev Bhat of Pejawar Seer’s Chaturmasya Samiti look on.

It has dolls recreating Jumboo Savari of princely rule of the year 1939

Kaladevi Doll Museum will have many more dolls to be arranged on the basis of different concepts. We have been organising the doll exhibition during Dasara for the last 18 years. The dolls designed during those exhibitions have been arranged in the Museum. Interested public can visit the Museum between 10 am and 7 pm. There is no entry fee. — R.G. Singh, Secretary, Ramsons Kala Pratishtana

Mysore/Mysuru: Jumboo Savari that takes off from Mysore Palace on Vijayadashami, the last leg of Mysuru Dasara still remains a crowd-puller. It has been thematically recreated, but of the procession during princely rule in 1939, with dolls in myriad hues arranged at Kaladevi Doll Museum, Ramsons Kala Pratishtana (RKP), opposite Mysuru Zoo in city.

Udupi Pejawar Mutt Seer Sri Vishwaprasanna Teertha Swamiji inaugurated Kaladevi Doll Museum, the first of its kind in South India, here last evening.

Speaking after inaugurating the Doll Museum, the Pejawar Seer said: “I felt happy over the way Ramsons Kala Pratishtana is encouraging arts. The glory of ancient tradition and culture of the land is recreated through dolls. With this, it would be easy to effectively introduce children to the past glory associated with our tradition in an effective way.”

During Navaratri, people at some places still practice the tradition of arranging dolls, occupying whole space in the house. It is indeed a wonder to see the dolls explaining about epics like Ramayana, Mahabharata and several other shrines. The art of arranging dolls is also a distinguished art and RKP has been telling the lesson of how to accept challenge of dedicating our life to art. We can also see here, the life of Lord Krishna unveiled in an attractive way, he added.

Kaladevi Doll Museum has been set up as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations of Ramsons Handicrafts Sales Emporium that was founded by D. Ram Singh in 1970. The Museum is located at the cellar of the Emporium.

It has been inspired by the miniature doll collection of R. Kaladevi, wife of D. Ram Singh. With this collection, RKP has established the Museum in her (Kaladevi) memory. Major displays here are sourced from several doll dioramas imaginatively curated by R.G. Singh and H.S. Dharmendra for Bombe Mane expo over the years. The other exhibits include doll replicas of celebrated cartoonist R.K. Laxman’s ‘Common Man,’ Lord Ganesha and varied tilaks in Hindu tradition depicted in the form of masks, sequences of epic Ramayana, Lord Krishna, Nandagokula traditional attires, Mahishasura, Goddess Chamundeshwari and others.